The Zodiac Killer

                           

Zodiac killer is one of the most famous, yet so far unidentified serial killers in history. It came back to life in recently when one of his ciphers were cracked. Let me tell you what we know about this mystery man. 

In 1968 two teenagers were killed in northern San Francisco and soon three newspapers received 3 identical letters without a return address. It stated that he is the killer of the teenagers and it described how the murders took place and even contained information only the killer would have known. Killer also added a threat that if the newspapers do not publish his letters in the front page, he will continue his killing spree. Each letter had a symbol of a circle with a cross and letters accompanied a cipher which is said to reveal his identity. 

His first cipher was decoded by a high school teacher and his wife and it stated " I like killing people because it is so much fun. It is more fun than killing wild game in the forest because man is most dangerous animal of all". 

On 5th of July 1969 he attacked Darlene Ferrin and Mike Mageau, her boyfriend. He shot at them killing the girl and causing deadly wound to the boy. Within an hour a man called police giving them information about the location of the attack  and also he claimed the responsibility of the attack. Later that year he attacked another couple (Cecillia Shephard and Bryan Hartnell)  and the male survived. He described the killer as a man in an eerie costume; a black hood and a black shirt with zodiac killers symbol. They were stabbed repeatedly and Cecillia died at the hospital. A man again called Napa police and claimed responsibility.

In 1969 Paul Stine, a taxi driver became his fifth victim after he was shot to death. Three days after the murder, San Francisco Chronicle received a letter from the Zodiac killer accompanied by a piece of bloody shirt of the victim. This letter also mentioned that he would next shoot a tire of a school bus and "pick off the kiddies as they come bouncing out". 

Altogether the zodiac killer left four ciphers. 340 cipher( the number of characters in the cipher were 340) 408 cipher which was solved by the school teacher and two more. The recently solved cipher stated " I hope you are having lots of fun trying to catch me. That wasn't me in the TV show which brings up a point about me. I am not afraid of the gas chamber because it will send me to paradice ( he misspelled paradise) all the sooner because I now have enough slaves to work for me. Where everyone else has nothing when they reach paradice so they are afraid of death. I am not I am not afraid because I know that my new life is. Life will be an easy one in paradice death."

In case if any of you are interested in seeing the real letters and ciphers by the zodiac killer, I found this website useful. (https://www.zodiacciphers.com) It had all the information as well as the images of the killers original writings. Up to this date, the identity of the killer is still a mystery and he is believed to be responsible for more than 20 deaths according to crime writers.